Southwest USA & The West Coast (California, Arizona etc) - General Thread

jackieblack · 2 June 2011 at 4:07PM

travellerboy wrote: »

I will be touring Arizona and Utah doing the usual National parks (GC, Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Monument valley in a rental car out of Vegus.
My question is " Can anyone recommend the best prepaid cheap Cellphone for Emergency Use only" I will probably buy in Walmart, LV.

We bought a Tracfone from Walmart last year when our flights home were cancelled (due to the Volano erupting in Iceland) and we wanted to be contactable by Virgin.

Vikki_74 · 8 June 2011 at 8:48PM

Just spotted this on today's Travelzoo "Top 20" deals email...

Direct flights from London to Los Angeles with Air New Zealand from £559 (weekday flights - weekends are from £599) for select dates in September & October:

http://www.travelzoo.com/uk/cheap-flights/international/-559-up-Fly-to-Los-Angeles-from-London-Return--1044530/?utm_source=top20_uk&utm_medium=email_top20

Not dirt cheap prices, but not bad for direct flights nowadays and I have heard very good things about Air NZ's service from people who have used them in the past. Worth a look if you're planning on going at that time of year anyway.

Vikki_74 · 8 June 2011 at 8:55PM

Another decent looking deal, this time from Goldstar...

Buy an adult ticket and get a kids (15 or under) ticket free for Universal Studios:

http://www.goldstar.com/e/47021

Haven't checked for availability but appears to be for any day in June so only for anyone off in the next few weeks unfortunately.

Vikki_74 · 18 June 2011 at 11:41AM

Well, I did say I would need to ask for advice on here as much as the next person, so now I'm well on with planning this year's trip thought I would finally pick everyone's brains a bit...

Last September we got married at Lake Tahoe followed by a fantastic honeymoon doing San Francisco, down the coast, LA, San Diego and Las Vegas. After much debate we've decided to go back 'out west' again to see some more of places we didn't have enough time for last time, and also see some of the fantastic national parks in Utah and Arizona. This will also be in September (14th - 30th) around the time of our wedding anniversary

This is how the trip plan looks at the moment, although there are still a couple of bits where we're trying to make up our minds about what to do:

3 nights Anaheim
2 nights near Zion NP - Dreamcatcher Inn B&B, Rockville
1 night near Bryce Canyon NP
2 nights Page - Holiday Inn Express, Page
1 night Grand Canyon NP (south rim) - Maswik Lodge
1 night Kingman
1 night Palm Springs/Palm Desert
5 nights San Diego

We have flights already booked to and from LAX, and the hotels mentioned are already booked but can be cancelled if we change our minds other than the HI Express in Page which has been booked & pre-paid through the Friends and Family deal posted elsewhere on this forum. Disney tickets for our time in Anaheim are also booked already (2 day hopper passe) as we had to get in quick before they put their prices up last Sunday.

Everything else though is wide open. We're thinking of doing a mule ride in Bryce Canyon and a tour of Antelope Canyon whilst in Page but haven't booked anything yet so other suggestions on things to do would be appreciated.

The bit between the Grand Canyon and San Diego is the part I'm currently unsure of. We'd originally planned to drive down to Phoenix via Flagstaff & Sedona, then fly to San Diego, but then thought we could drive the other way instead and do a mini Route 66 tour along the way. That would be a couple of days with quite a lot of driving though so I'm a bit undecided - if anyone's done something similar and can offer any pointers that would be great. Also if we did choose to drive the Route 66 way, any suggestions for places to see / eat / stay?

We loved San Diego so much last year but didn't really have enough time to see everything so have decided to end our trip with a good few nights there just to relax after all the driving and travelling around we'll be doing for the rest of our trip. We previously stayed at the Best Western Island Palms on Shelter Island but this time I'm considering renting a condo or something from vrbo.com instead of a hotel to give us a bit more space, a kitchen to avoid having to eat out every single meal etc. I can't decide which area to stay in though so if anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it.

We did the zoo, a boat trip and the old town trolley tour last year, as well as spending a short time on Coronado and a couple of hours in Old Town - I don't know where the rest of our time went! This time we're considering a trip to Sea World (although we have been to the one in Orlando several times so not sure if it's different enough to be worth it?) and want to spend some more time exploring Balboa Park and the beaches, and just chilling out. Oh, and trying the drive in movie theatre that misa.blue mentioned in her SD trip report which sounds like a lot of fun! Anything else we should try and include that I might not have thought of?

Also hotel suggestions for anywhere we haven't yet booked would be helpful. We're trying to keep to about $100 + tax per night but San Diego is likely to cost a bit more so would like to keep the costs down a bit elsewhere if we can to balance things out.

Any suggestions, tips, or possible tweaks to the itinerary would be most gratefully received.

Thanks everyone!
Vikki

realised · 18 June 2011 at 3:36PM

Hi all,

I was hoping someone could shed light on flight prices for October (10-24, flexible by a few days).

I thought, as my partner and I need a break this year but cannot afford summertime prices, we would go in October as it will be cheaper.

I checked prices from NYC-SFO-LAX in May and they were £516 odd. But I checked last week to book, and they're now £635!!

Even tickets just to SFO returning from LAX are expensive! But if I look in September/November, they are much cheaper

Anyone know why that could be?

:eek:

Edit, we are even considering going to Phoenix due to the warm weather but as long as we end up in LA we're not really that bothered

cottyh24 · 18 June 2011 at 5:12PM

Vikki

My suggestion (although it will be a long day of driving) would be to drive straight to Palm Springs from the Grand Canyon if you really want to see PS. You could take a detour along Route 66 through Seligman, Peach Springs etc as having a full day in Palm Springs will allow you to see the place a bit better than if you drive in from Kingman after a longish drive. One thing to note is the Aerial Tramway (one of the things we most enjoyed in PS) is closed for maintenance between 12th and 25th Sept (we had to plan our route last year around this so we'd be able to go on it). There are still plenty of things to do in Palm Springs though and it is a lovely place for a couple of nights. Also if you are a shopper there is a massive premium outlet about 20 mins drive away. I can give you details of where we stayed last year if you'd like.

If you don't fancy the long drive you could do the R66 detour and maybe drop down from I40 to Lake Havasu City, where they have London Bridge. We did a short detour there on our GC - Big Bear Lake drive and it seemed quite nice. You could stay the night there and then go on to PS the next day.

If I had to choose though, I'd do the CG - PS drive and spend two nights there.

Vikki_74 · 18 June 2011 at 7:10PM

I did think about doing the whole GC - PS drive in one as really we like to avoid one night stays where possible, but I think it might be just a bit too far for us to comfortably do in one day...mainly because I don't drive so my poor husband is stuck behind the wheel the whole time! Also it was recommended by someone on Trip Advisor to include another bit of Route 66 between (I think) Kingman and Oatman, over Sitgreaves pass which would add even more miles to that leg of the journey.

We have no particular desire to overnight in Kingman as to be honest it doesn't seem like the most exciting place in the world...it just happens to be at about the right point to break up the driving. Detouring a bit to Lake Havasu City and staying there for the night might be a good option instead - I'll look into the driving distances and hotels etc.

I found out about the aerial tramway being closed just the other day and am so disappointed as that's one of the things I definately wanted to do in PS. We would be there on the 24/25 which makes it all the more annoying as it re-opens the following day! Guess we'll just have to do another trip there in the future to check it out

We do like a bit of outlet shopping in the US so that might be something else to check out. I just googled 'Premium Outlets Palm Springs' and came up with the one in Desert Hills / Cabazon off the I-10...is that the one you mean?

Finally, yes, details of where you stayed would be fab - personal recommendations are always good.

Vikki_74 · 18 June 2011 at 7:13PM

realised wrote: »

I checked prices from NYC-SFO-LAX in May and they were £516 odd. But I checked last week to book, and they're now £635!!

Even tickets just to SFO returning from LAX are expensive! But if I look in September/November, they are much cheaper

Anyone know why that could be? :eek:

Complete stab in the dark, but half term maybe? I can kind of see why November might be cheaper than October, but agree it doesn't really make sense for September to be cheaper too unless it's school holiday related. No idea why the prices would have gone up so much in the last few weeks though - that's so frustrating!

cottyh24 · 18 June 2011 at 8:23PM

I understand the whole one driver thing as my husband doesn't drive so I'm the one stuck behind the wheel in our relationship! I just weighed up the long drive versus staying somewhere for the sake of shortening the journey and decided the first was the better option. We're doing the same this year with our San Diego - Tucson drive. There's something about driving in the USA that makes it seem so much less stressful than over here.

We stayed at the Caliente Tropics Resort in Palm Springs. It's a couple of minutes drive outside of PS but was half the price of some of the more central hotels. It was nothing fancy but it was clean and comfortable and the tiki theming was quite cute.

It was the Desert Hills Premium Outlets. We've been to a few of these now (Orlando, Vegas, LA Camarillo Outlet) and I think this was by far the biggest with the best variety of stores. They had a Kipling store where I could have spent a small fortune if I hadn't had a voice of reason (husband!) with me

realised · 18 June 2011 at 8:45PM

Vikki_74 wrote: »

Complete stab in the dark, but half term maybe? I can kind of see why November might be cheaper than October, but agree it doesn't really make sense for September to be cheaper too unless it's school holiday related. No idea why the prices would have gone up so much in the last few weeks though - that's so frustrating!

See that's what I initially thought but half term starts on the 24th Oct for our region which is the date we were planning on being back.

Frustrating because this is the only month we can go this year. I'll just have to keep an eye on prices and hope they go down closer to the time

Thanks!

Edit. Just had a look at Desert hills premium outlets. We usually go to camarillo but this one looks so good! Jimmy choo outlet! ahh.. i so badly want to go!

Southwest USA & The West Coast (California, Arizona etc) - General Thread

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